Yesterday I was fortunate enough to have one of my models make it onto Warhammer TV again! My Ultramarine Primaris Lieutenant featured alongside the work of other hobbyists on this Thursday’s ‘#WarhammerCommunity Hobby Round-Up: March For Macragge’ episode on Warhammer TV (Thursday 14th April episode, at around the 1 hour and 20 minute mark, if anyone would like to see it).
I’m very honoured to once again have had my work exhibited in this way, and as always a big thank you to Nick, Simon and the rest of the Warhammer Community Team for their kind words and high praise!
What if…the Ultramarine from the ‘Epic Space Marine’ box art had survived to cross the Rubicon Primaris? That’s the question that I asked myself for this year’s #MarchForMacragge side-project!
If you’re on the ‘hobby’ parts of social media then you may have seen the #MarchForMacragge hashtag being used a lot in the last few weeks. The premise is simple – paint something Ultramarine-related at some point during March and then share the results. Last year I painted an Ultramarine Veteran, and this year I tasked myself with recreating and updating the Ultramarine shown in the central image above. My goal was to bring the character up-to-date with Primaris proportions and Mk X armour, while retaining as many of the characterful details of the artwork as possible.
Building & Painting
For those not familiar with the artwork I’m referencing, here is the cover art for the ‘Space Marine’ box. This version of ‘Space Marine’ was the second edition of the 6mm ‘Epic’ game system, a successor to the original ‘Adeptus Titanicus’ game, and a precursor to today’s game of the same name. This art is one of the iconic pieces from GW in the early 90s, in my opinion, and we saw it reproduced and reused on book covers and promotional materials throughout the decade.
The Lieutenant is mostly based on the limited edition ‘Lieutenant Amulius’ model, only with the head replaced with a Blood Angels head and that arms from an ‘Easy to Build’ Primaris Intercessor to more closely match the pose in the artwork. The laurel wreaths on his head and chest were sculpted from modelling putty. This is what my gaming group jokingly refer to as a “wallet bleed” class conversion, i.e. something that requires the cutting-up and repurposing of rare or difficult to obtain miniatures.
The LED bionic eye was mostly achieved using the basic techniques described in my LED eye lens tutorial, with one key exception; instead of recasting the head in resin I used one of the GW plastic heads. I drilled a 1mm hole into the bionic eye of the plastic head, and then a larger hole up through the neck to meet the eye hole in the middle of the head. I then fed the wires of my 3V red ultra nano SMD chip LED in through the eye hole and out of the neck, then gently pulled the LED into the hole. I then ran the wires through the torso and legs – again, as described in my LED eye lens tutorial – to connect to the battery in the base. Then I applied a small blob of Water Splash Effect Gel, available from Green Stuff World, to fill in the hole of the bionic eye.
Once the gel was dry I applied three successive coats of Citadel ‘Technical’ Spiritstone Red to give the eye some colour when the LED is off and also to prevent the LED appearing too bright. Looking at the two pictures above, the LED is switched on in the left hand image and turned off in the right hand image.
When it came to the heraldry on his right shoulder pad, I thought I was going to have to make an educated guess as to what was on the rear half of the pad. That was until I realised that the full heraldry is repeated on the flag of the Land Raider! At first I assumed those were small stars in the top right blue square of the banner, but it was only when I noticed they weren’t on the Lieutenant’s shoulder pad that it occurred to me they were probably bullet holes in the banner.
The heraldry is painted on freehand, except for the Ultramarine symbol on the left, which is painted over a small transfer. One of the best tips I’ve ever received about freehand heraldry is from my good friend Apologist, and that was never to use pure black or pure white for heraldry and text in miniature painting. The reason for this is that the pure colours really stand out and draw the eye too much. Therefore the dark lines in the heraldry and 50:50 Abaddon Black / Mechanicus Standard Grey, and the white areas are Corax White.
Anyway, that’s all for today. I hope you’re enjoyed this little side project! Hopefully see you back here again soon. Don’t forget you can also follow my work on Twitter and Instagram.
As we reach the end of January, I can finally unveil my “New Year, New Army” project for 2022. This year I plan to expand my Flesh Eaters Kill Team into a small army in time for Armies on Parade in November. This is the first member of a new Intercessor Assault Squad, Brother Kane.
Brother Kane is depicted charging into the fray, bullets ricocheting from his armour. He carries the squad’s “Terror Banner”, an evolution of the vexilla carried by Legionaries in millennia past. Used by forces on both sides during the War of the False Primarch, they were unfurled at the moment the shooting starting, leaving their victims in no doubt as to who had come for them! The “Prey For Death” message is a homage to the slogan painted on the shoulder pad of the Flesh Eaters marine depicted in the colour section of the Warhammer 40K first edition ‘Rogue Trader’ rulebook.
Design, Building & Painting
I had a number of different design goals with this model. Firstly, I wanted to convert the base Primaris model to look like he was wearing Mark VI armour to help him fit more closely with the War of the False Primarch M34 setting. I achieved this by removing a lot of the distinctive Mark X armour details – ankle stabilisers, knee pad rims, etc – and adding chest power cables made from guitar strings. The shoulder pads and backpack are from the Forge World Mark VI armour kit.
The base model is an Assault Intercessor from the Indomitus box set. The left arm is in its normal position, and I repositioned the right arm and wrist to form a straight line with the other hand to allow the model to carry the flag. The flag pole is 1mm wire and the flag itself is a Tactical Marine banner turned on its side.
The LED effect bullet ricochets were achieved using the techniques described in my Simple LED Muzzle Flare tutorial, only with the “flares” coming from the armour rather than a gun barrel. Both LEDs are powered from the same battery. They are connected in parallel with each other and in series with a single 100 ohm resistor. You can see and On/Off comparison picture on the right of the gallery above.
The paint scheme is exactly the same as described in this post about my Flesh Eaters Kill Team.
That’s it for this week. One Assault Intercessor down, nine more to go! See you again soon for more Flesh Eaters space marines, and maybe even finishing some of the other projects I have on the go as well!
Chapter Master Pedro Kantor, on crossing the Rubicon Primaris.
What if…Pedro Kantor crossed the Rubicon Primaris? Although it hasn’t happened in canon (yet), it’s a question that many fans of the Crimson Fists have already considered. I had originally hoped to include my take on this idea as part of my Armies on Parade 2021 display board, but when it became clear that I wasn’t going to get it all done in time I put Pedro on the back-burner for a couple of weeks while I finished the board itself. But now Pedro is finally done!
Painting & Assembling
This was a relatively simple conversion based on the Imperial Fists character Tor Garadon. All Tor Garadon’s distinguishing features were removed, such as his head and the grav-gun. I also replaced the ruined defences he was standing on with a pile of Ork skulls!
I then added a few parts from the Finecast Chapter Master Pedro Kantor, specifically his personal banner, left forearm and Dorn’s Arrow. The helmet is from the limited edition Primaris Captain; I chose this one as it had the same laurel wreath as Pedro’s current model. I also sculpted the circular gemstone on his forehead from modelling putty to echo the gemstone on the existing Pedro model.
To create the LED helmet eye lenses and muzzle flare I used the techniques described in my LED Muzzle Flare Tutorial that you can find here. For the paint scheme, I resisted the temptation to go too “bling” with the detail on Pedro’s and kept to the comparatively limited palette that I used for the rest of my Crimson Fists.
So there we have it, Primaris Pedro Kantor! Rule-wise, I’ll simply use him as with his normal rules on the table top. The Primaris upgrade is simply an aesthetic improvement so that I wouldn’t need to field a “first born” Pedro Kantor in an otherwise all-Primaris army. That’s it for this week, see you all again soon!
Last weekend I published an article about my new Flesh Eaters ‘Kill Team Caro’. During the week I’ve been sharing some extra close-up images and background snippets about each member of the unit on my Twitter and Instagram. Now that I’ve covered them all, I thought it would be nice to compile the images and information here on my website as well.
First up we have Sergeant Caro himself. The honour markings on his helmet indicate he is a veteran of the Flesh Eaters famous “Jaws of Doom” assault squad. He lead his kill team to infiltrate Partisan space and target key assets during the so-called “Sorrowful Years”, the period during the War of the False Primarch that saw mainly retrenchment and small scale skirmishes between Orthodox and Partisan forces.
Next we have Brother Orr. He is equipped with an Umbra Ferrox pattern bolt gun with autosense-linked scope. This weapon has similar range and stopping power to the much later marksman bolt carbine and was the bane of Partisan counter-insurgency forces throughout the War of the False Primarch.
Then we have Brother Holman. As the unit’s Helix Adept his medical skills keep them in fighting shape while behind enemy lines. He also carries the squad’s “Terror Banner”. Used by forces on both sides during the War of the False Primarch, they were unfurled at the moment the shooting starting, leaving their victims in no doubt as to who had come for them!
The fourth member of Flesh Eaters Infiltrator ‘Kill Team Caro’ is Brother Amos. Like the rest of his unit, Amos wears ‘Imperial pattern’ power armour, a rare archaic variant of MkVI ‘Corvus’ armour, characterised by its narrow greaves and external cabling. Brother Amos is proficient in the use of bolt weapons, as indicated by the circular tactical marking on his right pauldron.
The fifth and final member of Flesh Eaters Infiltrator ‘Kill Team Caro’ is Brother Stern. His bolter is equipped with a close combat attachment, an upgrade popular with the Flesh Eaters during the War of the False Primarch. These weapons were valued for the psychological damage they inflicted on the foe as much as the gruesome physical injuries they caused.
I think that’s enough Flesh Eaters for the moment! If you like what you’ve seen here and would like to make your own LED miniatures then I used the techniques detailed in my LED Eye Lens tutorial and my Simple LED Muzzle Flare tutorial. If you need electronics supplies and consumables, you can buy them here. That’s all for this week, see you again soon!
Chris Buxey Paints 